Forest and Stre 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy 
Six Months, $1.50. 
•j. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1908. 
VOL. 
No. 127 FranklirH 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Spf.ir, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
A PROTEST OF THE WILD. 
There it was again, that maddening scream. 
The old fellow rushed out of his cave and stood 
looking. 
The Limited was behind time, and as the train 
rounded the curve into the canon, the engineer 
put something of his own impatience into the 
pull of the whistle cord that let out in full 
strength the scream,- the long-drawn wail, and 
then two short, sharp blasts. The echoes came 
back from the cliffs only to be drowned in the 
crash and roar of the train as it thundered 
through the rocky defile, wheels grumbling and 
groaning and grinding against the rails, bodies 
creaking and rumbling and pounding against one 
another—a babel of individual sounds. Then 
around the further curve the train was suddenly 
lost to sight and sound, and the canon was still 
again. 
As the cave-dweller stood there and watched 
the thing go by he was a picture of rage; his 
ears lay flat, his small eyes gleamed with malig¬ 
nant fire, his lips drawn back showed his teeth. 
Really the thing had got on his nerves. Many 
a time he had been roused from his sleep and 
come out like this to see and hear and resent the 
invasion and to despair of coping with it. But 
to-day a new thought came to him. Daily this 
thing passed backward and forward, always fol¬ 
lowing the same road. He had seen its trail 
many times, two shining ribbons stretching away 
and away and ever drawing nearer together. If 
it followed this road always, the road must lead 
from the place where the thing lived, and if one 
could find that place, surely it would be easy to 
destroy the thing. He had never been as far as 
the end of this road, but now he would go. 
Billings, Mont., is a large town of 15,000 peo¬ 
ple, with all the modern improvements—water¬ 
works, electric lights, manufactories and a poly¬ 
technic school, just started, where the youth of 
East or West may go for a thorough training 
in the applied arts and sciences—yet if the 
despatches are to be believed, modern Billings 
is not so very far distant from a West that is 
still wild enough to hold the grizzly bears which 
helped to make the old West famous. 
On the night of August 9 last, the night 
watchman in the yards of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad at Billings heard strange sounds which 
must be investigated. As he proceeded in the 
direction of the sound, hurrying along rapidly 
swinging his lantern, he saw what he supposed 
was a drunken tramp throwing railroad ties into 
the turntable. The watchman was indignant. He 
felt that a tramp who would amuse himself in 
this fashion must be unusually drunk, or else 
drunk on an unusual brand of alcohol, and he 
promptly rushed up to him to throw him out of 
the yard. Before he put his hands on the sup¬ 
posed tramp, however, he discovered that it was 
a large and apparently able-bodied grizzly bear, 
and the speed with which that watchman got out 
of the yard would probably have won him a 
record had he displayed it at the Olympic games 
in England. 
The bear stopped work in the yards for three 
hours. A great crowd gathered and watched 
the fun, but finally the animal was roped, tied, 
put in a cage, and deposited in the Billings Park. 
The reporters hailed the bear as a Godsend; 
got out their dictionaries of synonyms and wrote 
him up at space rates. The newspapers gave him 
display headlines with their biggest block type, 
while the dispatches regarding his extraordinary 
conduct kept the wires hot. 
No one, however, seems to have understood 
just what was the motive which prompted his 
entrance into the railroad yards and the efforts 
to block the turn-table. Yet, in fact, this was 
merely an expression of the protest of the 
wild against the changes that are taking place 
with such startling rapidity in a country that a 
generation ago was almost untouched. The 
creature that above all others typifies whatever is 
most rugged of the untamed wilderness, came 
down from his mountain home and endeavored 
to destroy, or at least render ineffective, that 
most potent engine of civilization—the railroad. 
GOOD WORK IN ALABAMA. 
The recent advance in public information and 
intelligence about the conservation of our 
natural resources is very gratifying. It should 
serve to encourage to further efforts those who 
have ■ had the patience and persistence to urge 
on public attention matters which concern the 
public good without becoming discouraged by 
the indifference so constantly met with. 
For almost a quarter of a century Forest 
and Stream discussed the importance of game 
and fish protection, of forest preservation and 
cultivation and later of wild bird preservation, 
and for much of that time apparently made no 
impression on the public mind. Then, suddenly, 
almost without warning, the public having ab¬ 
sorbed a part of these teachings, awoke to their 
importance and began to take a very real in¬ 
terest in them, and to-day liberal and just ideas 
on these subjects prevail among most well in¬ 
formed people. This active interest is not con¬ 
fined to any one section of the United States, 
but is wide spread. An example is found in 
an excellent address recently delivered by Game 
Commissioner John H. Wallace, Jr., before the 
Alabama Press Association, in which he deals 
with some of the results already brought about 
by the State’s new game law. 
The importance to agriculturists of the preser 
vation of game and insectivorous birds, so often 
insisted on all over the land, needs especial em¬ 
phasis in a territory where, as in the South, such 
innocent birds as robins, field larks, bull bats 
and doves—“the cheapest hoe hand the farmer 
can secure”—have long been commonly regarded 
as game. 
The license law passed by the Alabama Legis¬ 
lature at its last session has already brought into 
the State more than $ 20 , 000 , of which more than 
$ 15,000 remains to the credit of the game and 
fish protection fund, after all the expenses of 
the department have been paid. Sportsmen 
everywhere, resident or nonresident, have felt 
willing to pay the license. Another good effect 
of this law is that it tends to keep the cheap 
shotgun out of the hands of the idle negroes, 
who now, instead of earning a precarious sub¬ 
sistence by killing birds and animals at all sea¬ 
sons, will be obliged to go to work. 
Since it was put in force there has been a 
marked decrease in the number of offenses 
against the game law. The game wardens arc 
believed to be actively discharging the duties of 
their office, and the people of Alabama to be 
heartily in favor of convicting persons who vio¬ 
late the law. 
Formerly the destruction of wild life in Ala¬ 
bama was astonishing and terrifying, but the 
new law has greatly reduced this destruction. 
Preservation of Alabama’s forests, their intelli¬ 
gent use, and the proper culture of her timber 
will make them a permanent possession of the 
State, which will yield her a noble reward. In 
no State will the rigid enforcement of fish, game 
and forest laws yield a greater economic return 
than in Alabama. 
People who remember E. F. Randolph’s very 
interesting contributions to Forest and Stream 
during the last few years will be interested to 
learn that these have been brought together and 
are soon to be published in book form under the 
title “Inter-Ocean Hunting Tales.” Besides 
being a hunter of big game, Mr. Randolph is 
also an expert photographer, and his volume is 
illustrated with a number of delightful pictures 
of hunting scenes. 
* 
If the Mexican wild turkeys that have been 
liberated in California are becoming tame, as 
intimated by our San Francisco correspondent, 
the work of the game commission may be 
wasted. While no sportsman will care to hunt 
tamed wild turkeys, unscrupulous persons may 
do so, and in that event the supply will not hold 
out very long. 
